Five Days to Hal-Con!

I've been mentioning this a lot over at AIM Comics and on my Facebook page, but I just realized I haven't promoted it much here...
I'll be co-hosting a table at Hal-Con at the World Trade Convention Centre in Halifax this coming weekend.  I'll be there with Ian McDonald, creator of Bruno the Bandit.  I'll mainly be there to promote AIM Comics and our book "The Brutal Blade of Bruno the Bandit", but I'll also have a portfolio of my own work to show off.  We'll both be doing sketches and I'll have about a hundred copies of the ashcan edition of the first issue of "The Journals of Simon Pariah" to give away.  If you're in the Halifax area, drop in to the con, look for the AIM Comics banner, and come say hello.
For those who don't know, Hal-Con is a kick-ass sci-fi convention held in Halifax (this is it's second year) featuring some of the big names in sci-fi/fantasy/horror/comics, from writers like Kelley Armstrong to artists like Geof Isherwood, to actors like Erin Gray and Robert Maillet.  Last year's con was a great time, with a stupendous costume contest, a live podcast show, celebrity signings, some amazing vendor tables, and a book release by model Drakaina.  I expect this year's event to be no less impressive, and I'm looking forward to seeing things from both sides of the table. 

Conan the Younger

Sometimes it's fun to just mess around with your own fan art, y'know? 

Here's a piece based on one of the better scenes in the new "Conan the Barbarian" film.  I thought Leo Howard, for his limited screen time, played one of the better characters in the film.  Not that Jason Momoa's any slouch as the adult Conan, just that the first third of that film sang for me in a way the rest didn't. 

So...here's my take on young Conan, making his bones early.

I'm a Deviant!

Did you know that I have a DeviantArt gallery?  I know...it was a surprise to me too.

Not much up there yet, just a few sketches I'm doing to build a Digital Webbing forums thread.  I'll be adding more rough work there as time goes by, and possibly enabling some prints if I consider anything on there good enough.

If you're a Deviant, please drop me a comment, a fave, or send me a llama...although I have no idea why I would want one, or what I would feed it.

Sketch-a-riffic!

Free Comic Book Day 2010 was a blast!  I'm pleased to say that I had a slight case of artist's cramp at the end of the day...from the moment the doors opened until the end of the day, I was drawing nearly non-stop, as were the other artists in attendance.  The hosts kept me plied with cookies and Dr. Pepper...a sure way to my heart...so I was happy to keep blasting out the sketches for any and all.  My only regret is that I didn't have time to do more.
My favorite drawing of the day was a portrait of The Tick challenging Batman...with a spoon (that's a reference you can only get if you've actually read The Tick, and you should).  That sort of thing was the real fun of the day....taking challenges from the attendees to draw things I'd never considered before....Princess Fiona from Shrek, Sonic the Hedgehog, Iron Man vs. Astro Boy; fun stuff all the way.
Of course, it was also great for me that I was in some very good company.  I had the chance to briefly meet Faith Erin Hicks, the creator of the brilliant "Zombies Calling" and "The War at Ellsmere", Tim Larade, creator of the webcomic "One of Those Days",  and several others who (I'm ashamed to say) I did not write down names, links or other identifying information (sorry, guys!).  Apparently Darwyn Cooke showed up at some point, but I must have been hip deep in a drawing at the time, as I didn't spot him.
There's some pictures of the day up at Strange Adventures website; you can see the gallery here.  I'm the one doing the drawings of Deadpool and Iron Man, among others.  As you'll see, there was quite a crowd there...I'm told some people stood in line for over half an hour just to get into the building, and nearly as long to get a sketch. 
So, thanks to all who attended and dropped by the table for a sketch.  It was a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to doing more of these events.

Oh...and to the guy who I spoke to about the Green Lantern drawing....I haven't forgotten, and will deliver.  Drop me a line.

Modok Madness!

April showers may bring May flowers, but did you know that March brings Modok Madness?  I did, and that's why I submitted a piece to the March Modok Madness blog! 
For those who don't know, Modok is a completely mental Lee and Kirby Marvel Comics character who was a frequent foe of the Avengers and their compatriots.  Like many of Marvel's best villians, he is utterly megalomaniacal, and an utter failure, despite having a mega genius mind and the physical prowess of a Mr. Potato Head.  How could a combination like that fail to take over the world?
The good folks over at March Modok Madness have taken it upon themselves to see that this would be dictator gets his due by calling all artists to submit their interpretations of the character to be published on the blog.  There's some wonderfully creative versions over there, such as the "Obamodok" and the Simpsons Universe Modok.  Spending some time browsing the pages is not only entertaining, but also gives a good idea of how many ways a simple character can be interpreted.

My own modified Modok is a slightly askance comment on the Disney Marvel acquisition, but the image below is only a teaser...to get the image in its full glory, you're going to have to click through to March Modok Madness.  What are you waiting for?  Go!

They Can't All Be Zingers....

Almost finished with my current crop of deadlines; it'll soon be time for some downtime.  I think a lost weekend spent pursing the finer pleasures of scotch and Bioshock may be in order.  That is, unless something else comes along to keep me working.
Meantime, here's a sample of the stuff I'm currently working on.  This is part of a larger piece that I'm just finishing up.  This particular panel ended up not being used, not because it was particularly bad, just that it didn't match what the client was looking for in this shot.  Still, I think it's a nice perspective on the scene.  Click the image to see it in all it's black and white glory.
By the way...this is part of the piece that uses the texture I mentioned in my last post.

Want to be the one to keep me from getting any rest this month?  Use the email link to the left to contact me with an interesting project idea and a fistful of dollars, and I'll consider surrendering sleep, studio time and sundry other pleasures to your demands.

Rock in a Hard Place

Just for fun, here's a monochromatic portrait of Paul Chadwick's "Concrete".  I've been reading some of these books lately and quite enjoyed them.  As usual, I'm late to the party on this stuff, but it's quality is so far undiminished for the passage of time.  Well worth a read, if you get the chance.
This piece takes a bit of artistic licence, as Concrete is not really an action figure kind of character.  This
is just the way it flowed off my pen, and it was fun
to draw, and that's all I needed.

Out of the Shadows...

Here's another drawing to accompany a set of books that will be going up on Ebay this evening.  I've never really been a fan of Valentino's "Shadowhawk"; the art didn't work for me, and I find the costume design impractical and difficult to draw, especially the helmet.  Still, I like the way this one turned out.

On the Auction Block...

Holy mackerel, I'm selling my comics!
I'm a comic junkie.  Have been for as long as I can remember.  There's no cure for it; the only hope is to control the disease.
I have thousands of the things; so many that they're threatening to overflow my studio space.  So, I've decided to sell most of them, if I can.  Like so many hopefuls before me, I've headed off to Ebay to see if I can generate some interest in my collection.
Click here to see all the auctions I currently have up.
I'm doing it a bit differently, though.  Seems like it would probably take forever to sell the collection one book at a time.  So, I'm selling in sets.  Each set includes not only a good selection of comics from a particular series or publisher, but also other related items from my collection.  I've got Previews catalogs going back over 15 years, promotional material from many publishers, related magazines like Comics Journal and Comics Scene, and much more, and all of this will be added to the sets of books as I find things that relate to the comics.
Here's the kicker:  also included in each set will be a piece of original art done on a comic book backing board, featuring a character related to the books I'm auctioning.  This is an opportunity to not only grab some good comics, but also to own a cool piece of original art featuring your favorite characters.  (It's also a good opportunity for me to practice my quick sketching skills and play around with other people's characters.)
Sold so far is a set including the first 25 issues of Spawn, two Spawn miniseries and the issue of Wizard in which Spawn first appeared.  I've got other sets up right now, and will be adding more as I put them together and finish the drawing.
Once again, go here to take a look at what's on auction.

Here's just a sample of the type of drawing I'll be including with the comic sets; this one is currently up for bids with the first few issued of Youngblood.

By the way...my collection is fairly extensive and eclectic, and goes back over 30 years in spots.  If there's something, a particular issue or run of issues, you've been looking for, feel free to email me (the address is to the left) and see if I have it.  If we can strike a deal, I'll give you the option of requesting a custom piece of art to go with your order.

Edit: Conclusion:  Selling comics on Ebay is more trouble than it's worth.  I managed to move a few, but had to relist each set a couple times, and barely got what I would consider a fair price.  I don't have the kind of time and energy it takes to attempt to move a collection this large in such a piecemeal fashion.  Fuhgeddaboutit.

Blast from the Past...

My good friend and sometime collaborator Ian McDonald is running a series of his old drawings over at Bruno the Bandit this week, and it's kind of inspired me to look back into my own archives once again and pull out a few pieces that I've never really shared.
One of my favorite older pieces is this portrait of my character DeathMask (previously seen here).  This is one of my graphic novel projects that's still in limbo, mainly because it got roundly rejected by the publishers to whom it was sent, and that really put me off my feed on  this one.  Still, I think the idea behind it is solid and might just have to blow the dust off it one of these days.  Meantime, there's images like this one to remind me of what it could have been.  By the way, this was colored the old fashioned way, using watercolors, back before I got into digital coloring.

If Disney Be My Destiny...

Naturally, the internet is abuzz today with the news that Disney has purchased Marvel (I'd take the time to look up a link for you, but just try to move on the net without tripping over one).  Also naturally, I'm hearing rumblings from Marvel fans that they're worried their favorite comics will become "Disney-fied" - clean, wholesome and otherwise unenjoyable.  One of the popular visual memes that's coming about as a result of this is the Marvel/Mickey mashup, with various Marvel characters heads shopped onto Mickey's body.

It's cute, but it got me thinking, what if it goes the other way....what if Disney instead becomes "Marvel-fied"?  One look at this thread of comments at Warren Ellis's site shows the possibilities should Mickey and friends fall into the wrong (right) hands.  Heck, look what happened when Marvel met up with Archie Comics.

So, thinking along those lines led to this, my contribution to the Mickey/Marvel mashup meme (now with bonus alliteration!).  Click to see full size.  Enjoy.

In Brightest Day....

Here's a Green Lantern portrait I did for this thread over at The Drawing Board forums. I'm mostly pleased with the final result on this digital painting, although I can see a couple of areas that could use some work. Since it's just for fun, I'm not too worried about it.

Gamer Girl

Just for a chance of pace this week, I decided to try one of the drawing jams over the The Drawing Board. The jam of the month is to do an interpretation of photo reference of gamer girl Olivia Munn. Not being a hardcore gamer, I've never heard of her, but when I saw the photographs, it just screamed out for a Coop style interpretation, so here's the result (SFW, depending on how strict your workplace may be)....

Spider Queen, Spider Queen....

Another week, another Whitechapel post. I've really got to do some other projects; I'm starting to feel like I'm going to this well too often. It's just that the weekly Remake/Remodels are too damn fun to resist.

Crazier Than a Fish With What Now?

I'm back from vacation, tanned and touristed out, not much the worse for wear after braving the wilds of Orlando. Florida was not as crazy as I expected. Not as crazy as, for example, a fish with titties.
That's a phrase I've heard bandied about by Patrice, my favorite regular guest on the Keith and the Girl podcast. Apparently, it comes from some rap lyrics by R. Kelly. I thought it made for an interesting visual, so I did this little piece that I sent to Patrice in full fanboy mode. Ladies and gentlemen, for your viewing pleasure, I now present...the Tittyfish. You may now be amused.

Fresh Fish!

Just a little something done to have a go at scanning and coloring pencil work. Any comments on quality, or suggestions for improvement are welcomed.


Also, done because I really felt like drawing a guy with a goldfish bowl for a head. Some days, you gotta go where the muse takes you, ya know?

Who'll Be Watching the Watchmen?

Like most sentient beings on this side of the world, I'm looking forward to seeing "The Watchmen" this weekend. This is sort of a holy grail of comic book movies, so regardless of Alan Moore's opinion of adapting his works, there's no way I can miss this.
In preparation for seeing the movie, I'm rereading the graphic novel (and if you haven't done so, you absolutely owe it to yourself to do so as well, even if you're not a comic book geek like me).
Being a little older than the typical comic geek (somewhere more than a decade and less than an epoch), I remember reading the adventures of the original Charlton heroes on which the Watchmen were based. The Peacemaker, Thunderbolt, Blue Beetle, The Question (not so much Phantom Lady; she didn't get much play at Charlton), and their missing contemporaries Dr. Graves and E-Man, were part of my earliest comic reading experience.
So when I read Watchmen, I can't help but wonder how different the book might have been had it been done using those Charlton heroes as Alan Moore originally intended. That, of course, leads me to ponder an alternate reality in which it is those characters, instead of their revamped versions, that made it to the big screen.
So here is the result of several wasted lunch hours pondering the question, "What if the Charlton heroes were used in the movie version of the Watchmen?"


I recommend clicking to get the full view on this one, BTW.

Femmes Fatale

Not to be outdone by their male counterparts, here are three ladies of classic horror. Once again, if you have to ask who they are, shame on you. Turn off "Saw the Umpteenth" and go watch some horror with class.

Three Faces of Evil

Some rough sketches for a piece I'm contemplating; all are based on old publicity stills. If you have to ask who these gentlemen are, then you probably don't need to know.

Spacehawk Redesign

I recently signed up for Warren Ellis's Whitechapel forum, mainly so I could participate in his weekly remake/remodel sessions. Each week, Warren selects golden age comic characters and invites the more artistic members to redesign those characters for the modern age. It's great fun, and a good way to hone the character design skills.
Here's an example of a recent character that was put up for redesign. I didn't join in time to get in on this thread, but put together a piece, just for the fun of it. The character is Basil Wolverton's "Spacehawk" (see more about him here), and my take is somewhere between Hilary Barta and Tom O'Finland.